Chapter Two, Trabzon to Mashad

Page One

Thursday, July 7, 1977 / Erzurum

I arrived in Erzurum last night, by bus from Trabzon, tired. A long ride up over two mountain ranges, stops for tea every 2 hours. We got within about a kilometer of the terminal at Erzurum, and the bus had a flat tire, so we all caught taxis from there. I shared a taxi with a Dutchman and a Swiss who are traveling through Anatolia, cheap, and ended up in a real genuine hippy flytrap, the Otel Nuraniye. No shades on the windows, no water, bathtub unusable, etc.

Map - Trabzon to Erzurum

Stayed at the Nuraniye Wednesday night, and then got up early this morning, went to the bank and cashed a traveler's check, and moved across the street to a better hotel, the Örnek. Walked around town this morning, looking at the sights, a museum exhibiting almost exactly the same things Josef sells at his shop in the bazaar in Istanbul, the Yalentiye and Çifteminareler medresses.

Tuesday in Trabzon I did get out to the monastery at Sümela, and it cost me 320TL. An expensive trip, and not really worthwhile, although the Turks are very industriously building a better road to get to it.

I've found both Trabzon and Erzurum to be fairly pleasant towns, especailly Trabzon. Things are fairly well-organized and clean in comparison to Istanbul, the municipality seems to have money for buses and fire protection, and the people are really quite friendly. A lot of the Turks I'm meeting along the way really seem to look out for my benefit, which is a change from the way things usually go in Istanbul.

Friday, July 8, 1977 / Erzurum

Yesterday I bought a ticket at the bus terminal, for 250TL, to go to Teheran this morning., leaving at 7AM. Got to the place where I was supposed to meet the bus, on time, and a fellow came out and told me that the bus had left for Teheran at 5AM. Stood around for a few minutes until I'd decided he seemed to be right, caught a taxi back to the bus terminal hoping for an explanation, they told me I'd been standing at the wrong place, and so I caught a taxi, again, back to the Aros Oteli, where I was supposed to meet the bus. After wrangling with the agent at the bus company storefront there, it seemed I'd been misinformed, and got myself, therefore re-scheduled onto tomorrow's 7AM bus to Teheran. I went back twice during the day to confirm where and when I should meet the bus, and the 2nd time they changed my ticket for an Iranian ticket, and told me to be there at 6AM. I left satisfied.

I felt somewhat frustrated at first, what was I going to do with an extra day in Erzurum? I knew enough to not be bothered by the ticket foul-up per se. But, today ended up being very pleasant. Was walking up Cumhurriyet caddesi from the Çifteminareler medresse, and ran into Ilse and Richter, the 2 Austrians from the Izmir. And we spent a very nice day exploring a number of places I hadn't thought to go to or try to get into, and then met for dinner tonight at the Marti Restaurant.

They are exceedingly proper and pleasant young married people, well-off and well-educated, sensitive,and very open-minded. I feel very much the rough old colonial, because of my paternalistic feelings toward Turks, cynic when I'm around them.

Just as we were finishing dinner, two men came in from a Peugeot parked across the street, and joined us. An Italian and a Swiss, driving hell-bent for Kabul. They got from Istanbul to here with one overnight stop near Ankara, which is very quick in a 2CV.

Richter and Ilse and I exchanged addresses out on the sidewalk, and I demonstrated what may be the high-point of my facility in Turkish. Two kids came by to bother us about where we were from, etc.; I razzed them in Turkish and without any suggestion per se from me, they refused to believe I was a tourist, though I dressed and acted like one.